


The Dangers of Herbalism

by SpankyNewElf



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Comfort, F/M, Figging, Light Spanking, Love, Masturbation, Orgasm Delay, PWP, Switching
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-02
Updated: 2019-04-02
Packaged: 2020-01-01 03:03:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18327323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpankyNewElf/pseuds/SpankyNewElf
Summary: Cullen has been in a rotten mood for days; the Inquisitor thinks he needs to practice better self control.The Inquisitor is happy to help him, and she has something else she wants to try at the same time.  She's always finding interesting new plants on her travels; a couple have more uses than just putting them in potions.  Cullen is about to get a lesson in the dangers of herbalism.





	The Dangers of Herbalism

Cullen had been storming around Skyhold for two days.  She had returned four days ago, and their reunion had been lovely, but she had ruined it by telling him that she would be leaving again soon.  He couldn’t stop her, he could protect her, he couldn’t even slow her down. So Cullen stomped, and scowled, and barked at anyone who tested his patience.  

That was what he was doing now, in fact, his voice raised as he explained to a new recruit the correct procedure for delivering messages from the scouts.  The poor young man was staring at him, eyes wide, mumbling a frantic, “yes, ser” at every opportunity. Finally, disgusted with both of them, Cullen dismissed the recruit and stormed into his office.  He had already given the door a powerful swing shut before he noticed her sitting in his chair. 

Cullen froze, belatedly grabbed at the handle in a desperate attempt to not be caught slamming his door like a child.  He was too late, of course; the noise it made as it banged against the frame seemed louder than natural in the dead silence of his office.  Cullen winced and closed his eyes.

The silence continued.  Slowly, hoping half-heartedly that he had imagined her sitting there, he opened his eyes.  No luck. She still sat in his desk chair, a politely incredulous look on her face, eyebrows raised.  Cullen groaned, and dropped his head to stare at his feet. She insisted on treating all members of the Inquisition with exquisite politeness - something she did as naturally as breathing.  

He looked up when he heard a noise.  She had slid his bottom desk drawer open, and was holding his lyrium box in one hand, a questioning look on her face.  He nodded; yes, he needed her control - his own thoughts and feelings had gotten away from him. She set the box back in the drawer, and pointed at the ladder to his loft.

Cullen gaped at her.  Here? Now? She couldn’t mean it.  Her gaze was unwavering, though, locked on his; her expression didn’t change.  She did mean it. He climbed the ladder to his sleeping quarters, filled with trepidation.  Her voice floated up to him.

“Strip.  Stand at the foot of the bed.  Wait.” 

The instructions were clear enough, but his fingers shook with nerves while he followed them.  Anyone could wander in, it was the middle of the day. What would they think, hearing… whatever they were going to hear… coming from up here?  He stood at the foot of his bed, back to the open hole in his floor, skin prickling with trepidation as he imagined someone other than her climbing the ladder.  Despite his nerves, despite the determination which had prevented him from setting the lyrium box out in the last two days while his mood deteriorated, his cock was stirring.

When the door to his office closed, he jumped.  Footsteps crossed the room, and started up the ladder.  Cullen whimpered, but resisted the urge to look back over his shoulder to make sure it was her.  His self control was rewarded a moment later when her hand slid across his shoulders. He took a shuddering breath, not at all sure what to expect from this most unusual variation on their activities.

She started easily enough, her hands stroking over his back, sliding along his shoulders and dancing across the back of his neck.  He was starting to relax under her familiar touch when she slid her hands down his arms to his wrists. Holding them, she tugged gently, guiding his hands down and onto the bed in front of him.  His hands clenched around the foot board, and he stared at his knuckles as they turned white. A sudden thought had him peering back to see if she had closed the trap door in the floor. She hadn’t.  

Cullen was just opening his mouth to ask her to close it, when he finger came to rest across his lips.  The gesture was universal and immediately understood.  _ Be quiet. _  Her next silent command came in the form of her fingers sliding into his hair and gripping there, moving his head.   _ Look forward. _  He let out the breath he was holding and nodded slightly.  Her message was clear. She would insist he demonstrate self control here, now, and give him a powerful motivation to do better than yelling at subordinates and slamming his door.

She moved around behind him for a moment, then extended something into his range of vision.

A switch.  Long, narrow, and flexible, the branch of some tree she’d found in her travels, no doubt.  At least, he hoped so - a sudden vision of her pruning one of the trees in the courtyard garden presented itself to his horrified mind, prompting a groan.  It wasn’t the first switch she’d introduced him to. She had used one once before, on a particularly memorable occasion, drawing yelps and howls from him, and a complete inability to keep still - which had been amply punished when his dancing protest brought his balls into range of the evil thing.  Somehow, the stinging fire she lit on his ass had translated to an arousal which required two orgasms to assuage. He had hoped for and dreaded the return of the thing ever since.

Her finger came to rest across his lips again, a wordless reminder to be silent that he hardly needed.  The switch tapped lightly against his ass, one more warning of what was coming, a last chance to prepare.  The first stroke landed with a deceptively quiet  _ swish _ , completely out of line with how much it stung.  He set his jaw, determined to keep quiet. She was kind enough to give him several seconds to adjust to the bright line of fire across his ass, before adding two more.

Cullen’s breath was coming faster - a faint hint of sound to it the only signal of the effectiveness of the switch.  The wait was shorter this time, and three quick strokes landed in a row. This time, his hips twisted, trying to move his ass out of the way of the switch and a definite whimper escaped him.  She let him catch his breath and straighten his position before continuing.

He was squirming more before she had landed half a dozen strokes.  His feet stayed in place, but his hips twisted wildly to avoid the switch.  She paused again, longer this time. He could feel her staring at him, admiring the bright red lines she was no doubt leaving on his ass.  She moved away for a moment, and Cullen strained his ears trying to figure out what she was doing.

He didn’t hear anything, but the answer was quickly apparent when her hand slid, slick with oil, around his cock.  With a desperate whine, he pumped his hips forward, and was quite surprised when she let him. He thrust again, pulled back, and prepared for a third thrust when his growing hope dissolved in a flash of fire.  

She whipped the switch down across his ass again.  Desperate to evade the switch, he brought his hips forward, sliding his cock into her slick hand.  He froze, warring sensations overwhelming him. The switch tapped gently on his ass, and hesitantly he stuck it out again, hissing as his cock slid through her fingers.  She kept a firm hold on his cock, and continued applying the switch to his ass, meeting his wild thrusts and desperate attempts at evasion with the same response: pleasure before, fire behind.

Cullen bit his lip, hips moving frantically as he pursued an orgasm that was both encouraged and hindered by the switch repeatedly stinging his ass.  Just as he thought he was getting ahead of the pain, getting closer to the orgasm he craved, everything stopped. The switch didn’t land again, and she released his cock.  His hips pumped uselessly a few times more, his pleading constant, but too quiet to bring any warnings from her.

She dropped the switch on the bed under his nose, a signal that they were done with it.  He wasn’t sure whether he was disappointed or relieved. While he caught his breath, her hands moved lightly over him, her fingers bumping over a few long raised welts on his ass.  She had chosen well: the light, whippy switch had brought plenty of fire, but very little damage to his ass. The sharp sting was already fading, taking his hopes of an early orgasm with it, leaving a smoldering burn and a raging erection.

Her fingers moved to his balls next, stroking lightly, cupping them gently in her hand as he fought to stay still.  He managed it, and was rewarded by her hand moving to his cock, stroking it too lightly to bring him closer to orgasm; teasing enough to have him whining deep in his throat.  

Finally, she left off this pleasant torture, and moved away from him.  Cullen listened, unfamiliar noises reaching him in the quiet room. She moved around behind him some more; when her hand stroked over his ass again, it felt colder, and damp.  He frowned, wondering what she had planned.

He didn’t wonder for long.  Gentle fingers spread his cheeks, and something chilly and wet nudged at his asshole.  He jumped, squirming with uncertainty. He knew that some people used carved plugs, of course, but he had never thought to try one, and wasn’t sure he liked the idea.  

She was slow, and gentle, easing the thing into him.  Her calm helped him to relax, which eased the thing’s entry further.  Finally, she stopped pushing it into him, and her hands fell away. He listened as she moved farther away before all sound stopped.   

With nothing happening to hold his attention, his thoughts focused on the intruder in his ass.  It still felt cold, but was warming up. He clenched his ass around it, trying to create a mental image of the thing.  It felt odd, to have the thing just sitting inside him like that, and he squirmed a bit just to have something to do. 

Several long moments crept past, while Cullen tried to imagine what he looked like to her as she stood silently behind him.  The picture he conjured made him blush, and had his cock twitching, but didn’t shed any light on why she was so content to just wait.  Slowly, he became aware of a new sensation from the thing. He squirmed slightly, trying to pin down the feeling. It wasn’t cold anymore, and it wasn’t moving, but there was something happening.  

Cullen squirmed some more, clenching his ass in an effort to pin down the odd sensation.  It seemed to be getting slightly warmer, more than could be accounted for by his own body heat.  Suddenly, the thing wasn’t just slightly warmer, it was hot. It was burning! Shocked, he bucked his hips.  

She was there immediately, her hand resting lightly on the small of his back.  Her other hand smoothed across his ass, and landed on the whatever-it-was that was tormenting him.  He hoped for one moment that she was going to remove it, but she did no such thing. She twisted it, making him yelp - the sound surprisingly loud in the silence of his room - then wiggled it a bit.  Her hand skimmed further down, between his legs. She caressed his balls in passing, then closed her fingers around his cock. 

Stoking him slowly, she leaned over, her lips brushing against his ear as she whispered to him.

“It’s a little herb I found in my travels.  It spices up stews quite nicely, so I’ve collected rather a lot of it while we traveled.  I heard about this… alternate use… and couldn’t resist trying it out. Do you like it?”

Cullen shook his head frantically, but his cock was hard in her hand, the short movements of his hips trying to find relief for his ass and his cock equally.  She laughed softly, her breath tickling his ear and making him groan.

“Well, I’ll keep that in mind, then.  For now, let's call it an exercise in self control.  You’re going to stay here, just like this, until I return.  I wouldn’t make any noise, if I were you - the doors downstairs are unlocked, and it is nearly time for the afternoon scout reports.”

She gave his cock one more stroke before removing her hand.  His hips thrust forward, ass clenching around the invader, when she gave it another twist.  “Oh, and I wouldn’t keep clenching like that if I were you… it will only make the burning worse.”

Before he could think of a response, she was moving down his ladder.  He listened, and heard her footsteps cross the room; there was a creak as she settled into his desk chair, then silence.

With nothing else to hold his attention, Cullen’s awareness was pulled forcefully to the sensation of the thing she’d pushed inside him.  The fire in his ass was growing with every breath, his whining a constant high pitched sound that was almost too quiet to hear. His hips were waving desperately now, as if he hoped to shake it loose.   The fire in his ass seemed to fuel another fire, though; even without her hand on him, his cock was throbbing. He couldn’t force his thoughts away from the sensations she’d set in motion, and those sensations just kept building and growing; always increasing with no hope of release or relief.

He had no idea how long he’d been there, his awareness narrowed to his own body, when the door to his office opened.  Cullen froze, holding his breath as one of the scouts asked her where he was. He could imagine the smile that crossed her face, and the way she must have leaned forward in his chair by the creak it made.  Then, her voice drifted up from below.

“Commander Cullen needed a break.  I’ll be happy to take your report, though.”

Of course, the man cheerfully gave his report, probably delighted to be speaking to the Inquisitor herself.  Cullen let out his breath as quietly as he could, as he listened to the report. She certainly was being thorough, he thought grumpily, keeping the man there much longer than the simple report required, asking pointed questions that she could surely have read the answers to.  Not that the scout would be at all likely to complain about talking to the Inquisitor longer. She had just wrapped up and sent the man on his way when the next scout reported in, and the conversation was repeated. Three afternoon scout reports, Cullen told himself - there were only three to get through, and surely she wouldn’t leave him up here burning and  _ burning _ for long after that, would she?

It turned out, she would.  After the last scout had given his report, he heard her moving around downstairs, and then the scratch of pen on paper.  Was she writing something? While he was up here in torment? Cullen groaned, louder than he meant to, and heard her chuckle from downstairs.  She came up the ladder a few moments later.

Her hand slid over his back, and even though he had heard her come up the ladder, it made him jump.  He jumped again when her fingers found the evil herb and twisted it in his ass. Despite her warning, he couldn’t help clenching around it, and was rewarded with a fresh wave of tingling burn.  Her free hand came around him, he could feel her body pressed along his, and she set a single finger over his lips in a reminder to be silent. He nodded.

That hand moved in front of his eyes, and she clicked her fingers at him as she moved it downwards.  After first, he didn’t understand, and stayed in the position she had put him in. She brought her hand back up where he could see it, clicked her fingers again, and moved it slowly down.  This time, he got it, and moved so he could keep his eyes on her hand. She rewarded him with a pat on the ass, which would have been more welcome if she hadn’t - deliberately, he was sure - tapped the plug, making him squirm.  

He forgot to be annoyed - forgot to breathe - a moment later, as he watched her fingers close around his cock.  When she stroked him slowly, once up and then back down to the base, he gasped like a drowning man suddenly finding the surface of the water.  He couldn’t move, and couldn’t have taken his eyes away from her hand even if he wanted to. Her slender fingers wrapped around his straining cock was the most erotic thing he’d ever seen.

She started stroking slowly, steadily, her fingers moving along his length before brushing across the tip.  Over and over. Her grasp was tight enough to be encouraging, but more teasing than anything else. Experimentally, he thrust his hips forward to meet her fingers.

He had forgotten about her other hand.  As soon as his hips moved, she was tapping and twisting the thing in his ass, setting it burning afresh.  He moaned, and tried to hold still.

Her fingers kept gliding along his length, teasing, but not making any serious headway in his desperate desire for orgasm.  He was moaning constantly now, a bare whisper of sound that rose and fell with his breathing. 

Suddenly, her fingers tightened, and she started stroking him faster.  He couldn’t stay still at the sight of her fingers sliding so quickly over him, and rocked his hips in time with her strokes, hoping that she had kept him waiting as long as she meant to.

She took her hand away as soon as he moved.

Cullen balled his hand into a fist and slammed it onto his footboard in frustration.  Her only response was a breathy chuckle. She leaned over him, her breath tickling his ear.

“It seems that self control is an issue for you lately, Cullen.  Let's work on that, shall we?”

He moaned, but didn’t know how to answer that, so he didn’t say anything.  He could hear the smile in her voice as she continued.

“I want you to count backwards from twenty.  I’ll stroke you once for each count.” She gripped his cock, giving him a leisurely stroke from base to tip and back down to demonstrate.  “You can come when you’ve gotten all the way back to zero. Of course, if lose track, you’ll need to start over at twenty again.  Sound good?”

He shook his head, nodded, then shook his head again.  She kissed his ear. “Well, if you don’t want to play, I could just go.”  He shook his head frantically at that, and she patted his cock gently. “Alright then, start counting.”

Cullen cleared his throat as her fingers gripped him and slide slowly up and down his cock.  

“Twenty.”

Another languid stroke.  “Nineteen.”

“Eighteen.  Seventeen.” Her fingers brushed across his tip and his hips bucked.  “Fuck! Sixteen.” 

He heard her chuckle softly and groaned when the next stroke included that same brush across the tip of his cock.  “Fifteen.”

“Four….fourteen.”

The next stroke, she took her hand completely off him at the end, and let his cock shove back into her closed fist for the downstroke.  His knees buckled, and all thoughts of the count flew out of his head as he fought not to cum. He was still trying to catch his breath when he realized why she had stopped.

“I… I forget where we were.”

She patted his back.  “Then we were on twenty.”  She sounded positively cheerful about it, and he groaned.  “Need a break?” He nodded desperately. If they were starting over, he definitely needed a break.

She patted his back again, and gently pulled the plug out of his ass.  He gasped at the sensation, then relaxed. He was still focusing on the sudden feeling of emptiness and the lingering burn, when she climbed onto the bed in front of him.  Cullen blinked. He wasn’t sure when she had taken her clothes off, but she was completely naked. He stared at her as she settled onto the bed, her spread legs showing him clearly that she was enjoying the game as much as he was.  She held up her hand, still slick with the oil she had been using on him. “Be a shame to waste it, right?”

And to his horrified delight, she slid her fingers along her cunt, teasing at her clit before pushing two fingers inside.  Cullen’s moan was loud enough that she narrowed her eyes at him in warning.

When she was sure he wasn’t about to make another noise that would attract attention, she started sliding her fingers slowly in and out.  Her head fell back and her eyes closed, lips forming a moan without sound. Her free hand came up to her breasts, teasing her nipples to tighter peaks as she played with herself.  

Cullen found his hips thrusting in time with the motion of her fingers, his cock dripping even without anything touching it at all.  It didn’t take long before she opened her eyes, locked her gaze on his, increased the pace of her fingers, and came. She was completely silent, mouth open in a gasp with no voice, her body bowing up off the bed.

For several moments, she lay there, breathing heavily.  Then she got up, and grinned at him. “Well, that’s enough of a break, don’t you think?”  Her legs were slightly wobbly as she walked back to the foot of his bed, and Cullen’s hands tightened on the footboard of his bed.  He was still staring at the bed, where she had been laying just moments before, bringing herself to orgasm while he watched in helpless arousal, as her fingers closed around his cock.  A fast, tight stroke, he was counting before he had a chance to think about it.

“Twenty.”

She brought him quickly this time, he was barely gasping the numbers out when he got to five, his hips thrusting with her strokes.  His eyes were clenched shut as he concentrated on getting the count right and holding off his orgasm. When her fingers left him, he whimpered.

She leaned forward to whisper in his ear.  “Five more strokes. Will you be able to cum when you’ve had them?”  He nodded frantically. “Alright. You’d best be silent, though.” He nodded again, setting his jaw.  She started to wrap her hand around him, then paused and leaned forward again. “Watch.”   
  


Cullen forced his eyes to focus on her hand.  She gave him a moment to breath, then moved her hand quickly on the last five strokes.  He was gasping at the first, his orgasm building, but he couldn’t keep the numbers in his head.  He climaxed with a sharp gasp and then quiet whimpers, fighting to keep his voice down. He watched as she coaxed every last drop from his twitching cock, then stroked him gently as he shuddered with aftershocks.

Finally, she took her hand from him, and he heard movement.  She returned a moment later with a soft cloth to clean him gently.  Then she guided him into his bed, and to his delight, curled up beside him.  

They were silent as they relaxed together.  Suddenly, Cullen jerked up into a sitting position, staring wildly at the trap door into his room.  He was surprised to find it closed.

She was laughing when he collapsed back down next to her.  “You didn’t think I’d leave it open when I didn’t have any clothes on, did you?”  He scowled at her, but it only made her laugh harder. “And the doors are locked downstairs.  I did it before I came back up.”


End file.
